How much battery does the TV & DVD draw?

cortlandjim

We are gonna camp in a state park without hookups and the little one likes to watch a movie before bed. Has anyone used the TV & DVD just on battery? Will it kill it completely? I do have a solar trickle charger that I hookup although not really sure it does much at this point. We aren't using anything other than lights besides and will Have fridge off.

Thanks

jkjenn

If you are using a stock 100ah battery, yeah, it will suck the life out of it. I used my tablet for bedtime videos. I have since upgraded my battery setup and think I can watch a little TV. Here is what I have in terms of usage.

wizard1880

Our tab only came with a 55ah battery, and we can have the 12v fridge (CS model, so compressor based) on and watch a movie, with the Alde keeping us warm overnight and still have some power remaining in the morning. If you're only watching a movie, you should be fine.

jkjenn

wizard1880 said:

Our tab only came with a 55ah battery, and we can have the 12v fridge (CS model, so compressor based) on and watch a movie, with the Alde keeping us warm overnight and still have some power remaining in the morning. If you're only watching a movie, you should be fine.

Bear in mind it is bad for your battery to regularly deplete below 50%.

Nomad

Sandra - You can "download" Netflix movies? How?
Netflix is a "streaming" service. You can download from iTunes for later play but I've never been able to with Netfix, Hulu or any of the other streams.

Nomad

Sometimes downloading/streaming are used interchangeably. Technically, a stream is downloading but it's not the the same as downloading and saving the entire movie to the device. Will be interested in what you find.

Nomad

Doesn't sound like a Netflix movie but instead a movie rental through Amazon that you then get charged extra for - same as if you rented it thru iTunes and downloaded it to your iPad.
Still better than carrying around a bunch of DVDs in my book.

larrygon

Amazon Prime subscribers can now download select movies and TV shows for offline viewing, but Netflix says it won't enable downloads because the option will confuse its customers.

http://www.cio.com/article/2981881/consumer-technology/netflix-thinks-its-customers-are-too-dumb-to-download-video.html

Nomad

Sandra - That's what I thought. Netflix is streaming only. You need an internet connection to stream. Ok at home, would kill your cell data plan in short order on the road. And from what I've heard, campground wifi (when available) is too slow or unreliable to get a good, unbuffered stream.
Amazon or iTunes rentals to an iPad or computer are the download options.

mash2

There is a service called playlater that allows you to capture nextflix on your desktop and it creates a file that can be played on your devices I believe.  Costs 25 per year, but only works on windows desktops unfortunately.  

wizard1880

jkjenn said:

wizard1880 said:

Our tab only came with a 55ah battery, and we can have the 12v fridge (CS model, so compressor based) on and watch a movie, with the Alde keeping us warm overnight and still have some power remaining in the morning. If you're only watching a movie, you should be fine.

Bear in mind it is bad for your battery to regularly deplete below 50%.

Agreed.  60% or above is our goal.  The TriMetric showed that we sat at 65% that next morning.

Watching a movie drains our battery between 8-12% (4-6 AH), as the TV / DVD together only take between 2-3 amps when in use (as measured).  That table may be outdated.

jkjenn

wizard1880 said:

jkjenn said:

wizard1880 said:

Our tab only came with a 55ah battery, and we can have the 12v fridge (CS model, so compressor based) on and watch a movie, with the Alde keeping us warm overnight and still have some power remaining in the morning. If you're only watching a movie, you should be fine.

Bear in mind it is bad for your battery to regularly deplete below 50%.

Agreed.  60% or above is our goal.  The TriMetric showed that we sat at 65% that next morning.

Watching a movie drains our battery between 8-12% (4-6 AH), as the TV / DVD together only take between 2-3 amps when in use (as measured).  That table may be outdated.

I am curious if you have the newer Jensen with Bluetooth or the older. I believe the specs came from Jensen for the older without Bluetooth. It would. e awesome to find out it didn't use as much. To be honest, I thought the numbers sounded high. On the other hand, 4-6ah is pretty close when the average movie is about 1.5 hours. I wonder if you use less ah when watching over the air TV?

wizard1880

Next time I get a chance I'll measure it to get more exact readings. We don't have the Bluetooth, ours was built in Feb 2014.

I wonder if I had all the speakers on, volume cranked, etc. etc. It might consume more power. I figure their estimates have some leeway built in for worst case scenarios, and when used for power consumption planning, gives a margin of error.

Just to note, I found the Alde's power consumption is MUCH higher than advertised, over twice. Mine takes ~2 amps when in full use, with the boiler on high power and the circulation pump going.

KyBawpaw

Speakers always suck the juice. The louder the more. Ear buds will definitely make a difference in power consumption if you are running on battery.

jkjenn

I recently tested the power draw on different things in the T@b and here are the updates I made. I did not test the USB ports, Alde, Norfolk or pump yet. I tested the lights, stereo, TV, and fan.

Ratkity

Thanks Jenn!!

Michigan_Mike

Good stuff Jenn and an excellent reference information for others when the subject comes up down the road.

Thanks!

Nomad

Anyone have that battery meter chart - 2.5/full, etc - might be a nice companion chart to Jenn's.

jkjenn

Here you go. I set  the alarm on my battery monitor to go off when I hit 60%. It might be sort of cool to program an IoT device to turn the battery shut off switch off when it hits something like 52%.

Nomad

With a good sunny day, mine's gennerally above 12.6 after sundown - slowly drifts down to 12.2 by midnight and remains there through the night. Every once in awhile (for no apparent reason) it has dropped to 11.9 - It's rare so I haven't worried about it. One of those things where you just go "huh".

Mr_Mrs_Gnome

@jkJenn, IoT device??

Nomad

IoT - Internet of Things - Devices of all kinds that connect to the internet. For instance, my brother has a BBQ (not grill) where he can program the temps he wants over time with his iPhone. He also has temperature probs he can monitor via his iPhone.

jkjenn

Yes, plus the kind you can program yourself like Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

Nomad

Only geeks would come up with an acronym where you can't tell if that first letter is a lowercase L or an uppercase I.

Mr_Mrs_Gnome

@PXLated & @jkjenn, thanks a loT!

Ratkity

LOL Gnomes!!! Oh man, I've been out-geeked. I humbly bow down 

Nomad

:-)

RollingLagrima

PXLated said:

Only geeks would come up with an acronym where you can't tell if that first letter is a lowercase L or an uppercase I.

i was like....(valley girl voice)...what????